In dealing with the highest level of inflation since 1982, many comments on unions being stronger to protect their members before the Tories took their rights away. There were other big differences (see Thread). Any analysis of the current crisis has to include all of these.
1/ Housing: most renters were in council homes (effectively rent control). Right to buy introduced by the Tories effectively destroyed council housing and boosted the private rental sector. There is no control on rents.
Source: fullfact.org/economy/social…
2/ Benefits were adjusted by the RPI measure of inflation not the current CPI one. CPI excludes housing cots and is therefore almost always lower. For instance in April '22, CPI was 9% but RPI was 11%. The Tories made the switch from RPI to CPI. Source: researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06…
3/ Household debt - we borrowed less and therefore owed less in the 1980s compared to now. In 1987 household debt was 56% of GDP, in Dec 2021 it was 91%. The Tories from 80s dismantled limits on financial activity and credit
Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…
4/ Inequality - the top rate of tax was 60% in 1982, it's now 40%. The incomes of the richest have soared since 1982 relative to the average. Look at the blue and red lines in 1982 see how close they were to 2015. This reflects the cumulation of the previous points.
5/ Under Tory governments the richest have disproportionately faired way better than everyone else. Additional Tory cuts and under investment in health, education, transport, council spending have reduced what is publicly available versus what can be privately provided.
6/ The graph is the Gini coefficient, a standard way of international measuring economic inequality. 0% is perfect equality, 100% is perfect inequality. The UK ratio has soared to inequality since the changes the Tories made in the 1980s and after. Source: statista.com/statistics/872…
7/ The current #CostOfLivingCrisis is driven by global factors, yes. But the scale of hardship here has been intensified by the impact of Tory policies (many of which were sadly accepted by Labour 1997 to 2010). This history has to be part of any analysis of the current crisis.
That old myth about the royals and tourism has done the rounds like crazy. It never gets fact checked, so here some data 1/ UK sites: No royal site, free or paid is a top 10 tourist attraction by visitor numbers
2/ Countries: 3 of the top 10 most popular countries for tourists are monarchies. Not one sensible person is saying people are going to Spain and Thailand to see the royal palaces and not going for the beaches (nowhere near the royal palaces). Same applies here (see 1).
3/ Those who want to justify the monarchy and the obscene sums of money they get directly or in tax loopholes can crack out the tourism myth. They have no other credible practical excuse left. But the media shouldn’t let this claim go unchecked let alone repeat it uncritically.
Labour have been consistently been making two claims about their NHS plans: 1) They will scrap the non dom tax 2) They will use it to fund the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce
As the media can’t be bothered to, I’ve fact checked this on this thread
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1) Labour ISN’T scrapping the non dom tax loophole it’s replacing it with a new tax break because they want “to attract top international talent”. In no understanding of the English language are “scrapping” and “replacing” the same thing.
Source theguardian.com/news/2022/apr/…
2) Will Labour’s new tax loophole for Non Dons raise enough for the “biggest expansion of the NHS workforce”?
So far Labour has not detailed what it’s new tax loop hole will look like. On Labour’s own figures (see above) the total scrapping of the current loophole will
1/ For the #Budget you'll hear both Tories and Labour as well the media say things like "we haven't got the money". The truth is we do have money, lots of it. The Tories alone have burnt through hundreds of billions, pure waste. This thread lists some of the worst wastes.
2/ £50 billion wasted on Cameron's NHS reforms. They found the money for that but not for fair pay rises for NHS staff.
Details: everydoctor.org.uk/blog/nhs-refor…
1/ I'm pulling my hair out with the crap, disingenuous media reporting of the #NHSCrisis. I've seen the BBC, Sky and ITV all cite the Tories plan to give health and social care £14.1bn more over 2 years with NO CONTEXT. So let me do it:
Thread
2/ Total spend on health and social care is c£180 bn a year.
With inflation at c10%, to stay level they would need an extra c£18 bn a year.
The Tories plan is c.£7 bn a year, ie £11 bn, c60% less than is needed to stay level.
So in practice this extra money is a real terms cut.
3/ By not giving this context, the media are doing a propaganda job for the Tories. The Tories are trying to present a real terms cut as extra money. By parroting the line that this is "extra" money. the media are lying on the Tories behalf.
1/ Thread: The next big Tory lie - Inflation
Sunak says “he’ll halve inflation this year” at his press conference.
No reporter asks him how exactly is it that he can control inflation and if he can why hasn’t he done it sooner?
2/ Inflation will fall ALL around the world this year. It’s a relative measure between two points in time. Prices spiked up last year because of the hike in energy prices especially after the Ukraine invasion. Unless there is another spike like that, inflation WILL go down.
3/ Energy prices this March are likely to be much lower than last year. Energy is a big part of inflation calculations. So, inflation WILL fall automatically. The Government doesn’t have to lift a finger for inflation to fall.
BofE Inflation report: bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/…
1/ The massive #NHSCrisis we're now suffering is only a surprise to the Tories and the mainstream media. The warnings of this crisis were there in JULY, well before flu and the winter COVID surge. They were ignored then as they coincided with the Johnson meltdown.
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